


An Old Beau

by GoodJanet



Category: Mad Men
Genre: Bittersweet, Crushes, F/M, Jewelry, Kissing, Mutually Unrequited, Unrequited Love, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 23:59:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9210899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoodJanet/pseuds/GoodJanet
Summary: Don pretends he has a shot with Joan. Joan indulges him and herself.





	

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about her before. Joan was…Well, there wasn’t really a word for what she was. Joan was whip smart. Stunningly gorgeous. Brutally honest. She was deceptive in a way that scared and excited him in equal measure.

Don had kept his distance for a reason: he knew he couldn’t handle her. For one thing, she didn’t _need_ to be handled. She was well-equipped enough to do that on her own. How Roger ever worked up the courage—maybe it was liquid courage—to approach her and keep her for as long as he had was impressive to say the least.

Which is why he was both surprised and not surprised to hear she got engaged. It made sense, he supposes. She was a young, intelligent, beautiful woman. You’d have to be queer or a sucker to pass up an opportunity to be with her.

Don chuckles around his cigarette. He wonders what that made him.

The day she flaunts her huge engagement ring around the office, Don cuts out early with the intention of buying her something special. He decides to prod an old wound and winds up at Menken’s. Some old broad named Nancy helps him pick out a silver bracelet with three sapphire stones. It was simple, but expensive, and it looked even more so as she placed it gently inside a black velvet box, wrapped it in blue paper, and proceeded to put _that_ in a white gift bag.

When he gets back to the office, his eyes scan the floor. God, she is resplendent in blue, and it makes her hair look like it was glowing. He barely notices the secretaries flocked around her, gagging with jealousy. He hides the small bag inside his jacket pocket.

“Can I see you in my office for a second?” he asks.

She turns to him and licks her cherry red lips like she’s thinking it over, and Don thinks he might die.

“Of course, Mr. Draper. Girls, you should get back to work now. There’s still plenty to be done today.”

Don smiles as she falls in step beside him. How did she do that in heels? How did she run around the office all day and still look like that _and_ keep her wits about her?

He opens the door for her and shuts it behind him. She stands in the middle of his office like she owns it.

“I’m sure you heard my good news?” she prompts, blushing in a way that complimented rather than detracted from her hair.

“What news?” he asks.

He steps further into the room.

“It’s not like I’ve been subtle."

Don laughs as he moves to fix them a drink. He accidentally brushes past her as he does so, and the movement makes the bag in his jacket crackle. It catches her attention instantly. Her eyes land on the culprit: the bulge in his pocket with the paper handle sticking out. He can see about a million sly comments run through her head as her eyes snap back to his.

“Is that for me?”

“Maybe,” he says handing her a glass. He raises his. “Congratulations.”

Their glasses clink, and she takes a sip as he pulls her gift from his pocket.

“Don, you really shouldn’t have.”

“I wanted to.”

He hands it out to her, and she carefully takes it from him. She sits down in one of the chairs while Don opts to lean on the edge of his desk. Joan pulls the blue tissue paper away, revealing the velvet box, and looks up at him, eyebrow raised.

“You’re a little late if this is your way of proposing to me.”

“Go ahead and open it.”

The box creaks a little when she opens it. Don swallows the rest of his drink as he watches her eyes widen.

“Don, you know I can’t accept this.”

“Sure you can. It even matches your dress.”

“How would you feel if one of Betty’s old beaux gave her a piece of, quite frankly, expensive jewelry?” 

She asks him this, he notes, while she undoes the clasp to try it on herself.

“I’m one of your beaux?”

Joan shoots him a look as she struggles with the clasp. He takes her dainty hand in his before carefully linking the even daintier clasp. They lock eyes when he’s finished. There’s a brief moment of silence laced with everything they weren’t saying, and then Joan decides to twist the dagger:

“You could’ve been.”

Her barbs sink into the soft flesh of his heart in the most achingly pleasant way possible.

“You’re lucky you’re marrying a surgeon,” Don says. “That one cut deep.”

Joan laughs as she extends her arm to admire the way her new gift glinted in the sunlight. She gazes at it fondly before pouting.

“Don, I can’t keep this. It’s beautiful, but I know Greg would pitch a fit.”

Don stamps out his cigarette.

“Okay. I’ll return it if that’s what you really want.”

Joan holds out her hand for Don to remove the bracelet. Her hand is dwarfed cupped between his.

“I’m not giving it up willingly,” Joan says. “It really is exquisite.”

“You should keep it on then. Just for today. I’ll return it tomorrow.”

Joan eyes squint with mischief, and her smile returns.

“And just what do you suggest I tell those vultures out there who’ll be asking questions the minute I step outside your door?”

Don leans into her very close, hands braced on the arms of her chair. He gives her plenty of time to tell him to stop, but she doesn’t. Instead, he presses his lips to her slightly puckered mouth. He lets himself linger there a moment too long before pulling back. She exhales.

“Tell them it was from an old beau.”


End file.
